This guy might be a good college pitcher but he hasn't any experience in facing professional ball players yet.  There has been several pitchers, coming out of college and even high school, that was put into the major leagues right off the bat and because of that just didn't come up to expectations.  Give him some seasoning at the Triple-A level for a season and pay him a good salary such as $1 to $5 million dollars.  If he sets the league on fire, then give him the big numbers.  If he is as good as every-body thinks he is he will have many, many years of making "big" money.

I think that Stephen Strasburg should get the same has any minor league player starting out, he is not any better then anybody else. Sure he may have a great arm, but there are other pitchers in time would have a arm like him.

I'm all for pay for performance - Make sure that he has to prove his worth!

Really how many jobs are out there in the real world that you get paid millions of dollars before you actually do an ounce of work! Yes he is playing college ball great - we all had to go through school, but we had to start at the bottom of the ladder and work our way up to earn better salaries. Professional athletes shouldn't be any different, and for those that say well what if they get injury how will they live. My answer - Just like the rest of us, they should be able to find another profession beside baseball or whatever.

I wish him a long a success for career, especially here in DC - but lets stop the insanity of paying million dollar bonuses and contracts to these individuals prior to them even starting a single game in their professional careers.

Pay him no more than $8 million for a signing bonus, with a bonus laden contract. Base it on ERA at each level (which I assume won't include much in the minors). I think that a good formula for determining a pitcher's rate of pay is to give them the Major League minimum, plus $2,500 for every 1/10 point (.1) their ERA is below 5.00, TIMES the number of innings they pitch. Using this formula, a guy that has an ERA of 3.00 and pitches 200 innings, would be paid $10 million plus the minimum salary. Seems about right.....

Richard in Dallas does have it about right...

There is a system in place through arbitration and free agency where baseball players can eventually earn their true worth. If "potentially" great ball players hold out for huge signing bonuses, this takes away the means for a small market team to compete. This is the whole point of why the worst finishing team gets to pick first in the draft.

Pick him & trade him. Let a contender sign him. The Nat's could use some depth. He'll be no help to them.

The system is broken, but the Lords of Baseball won't fix it until it is horribly broken -- the good news is that we are close to that point.

Is there anybody left that really cares?

The college numbers are comparable or better than Prior's were, so I can see the justification for giving him a similar bonus (even though the day-to-day competition was significantly lesser than Prior faced in the Pac-10 or a guy like David Price faced in the SEC). Given the bonuses that guys like Alvarez and Hosmer got last year as everyday players though (and what Aaron Crow turned down from the Nats last year), I think the $10.5 mil. tag is too steep. In any event, giving the Nats' current state of play and their failure to bring in Crow last year, I think they've got to come out with an offer of something in the vicinity of $12.5M and then say, that's all the dough you're going to see from us. Sign and play now, or go back for another year in college and risk injury.

Again, a pitcher only pitches 20-25% of games. He didn't get San Diego State into the World Series & he won't get the Nats to the playoffs either. If he is worth all the money AND the hype, then his team would be in the World Series. High prices should go to position players and hitters - guys who play every day. Baseball is about talented players on a TEAM, not one great pitcher. Anything over $100,000 is too much for this guy, until he becomes proven, year after year. That's who's valuable. I'd rather have Pettite on my team at his age, then a young, unproven guy - 100 mph or not.

They are going to have to pay him whatever he wants. They couldn't sign last years #1 pick and to lose those guys two years in a row will kill them for the future and in the eyes of their fans. What are these guys worth? Whatever the owners will pay them. have you ever noticed that the owners will never open their books when questioned about their teams finances???? ALL these owners are making money hand over fist, they can try and bull@!$%# everybody but untill they open up their books, cough up the money guys. If you can't play with the big boys find another hobby ( and that's what these teams are for these owners)

He should get "0" after he has been around a few seasons and has proven himself then let him make some money.